My rule for introducing characters in this project has usually been for them to appear in a story chapter or wiki template. However, this page is where I break that rule to introduce characters I have concepts for that I'm ready to share, but might not have finalized designs or backstories. The names for them might not even be finalized at first.
The concepts here may be subject to change. When they're close enough to being finalized, they'll be moved from here, and basic information about them will be added to the wiki.
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Name not finalized yet
Basis: Windows XP
Debut: Cycle 672 (Q4 2001)
Hair color: Black with dark blue and light blue streaks
Eye color: Red, blue or silver (not finalized yet)
Affiliation: Defending Waits for Nobody
Skillsets: Operating Superstar, Artisan
The green bows on her outfit are also meant to be a Luna Moth motif. I also considered instead of these bows on her outfit, that she could have Luna Moth wings and antennae. Ironic though since XP consumed a lot of RAM for the time and adult Luna Moths don't eat at all. She has a pair of green headpieces loosely modeled after Luna Moth antennae, but they're hidden under her hat.
Her outfit has a light blue blouse with a black tank top underneath, a light blue and black plaid skirt, blue leg warmers with green ribbons at the top, and a necklace based on the XP loading screen bar. Her bracelets are jelly bracelets in the Windows logo colors, and larger bracelets or wristbands modeled after the XP scrollbar.
She gets along well with Chariots of Colors; she and Terrell led a lasting collaboration between their teams referencing Boot Camp introduced with OS X Tiger allowing Intel Macs to run Windows.
A macOS Sonoma character might be related to her (i.e: from the same clan but joined different teams), or might otherwise see the XP character as a fashion icon, and her design is planned to take a few cues from her; the default screensaver of macOS Sonoma resembles the Bliss wallpaper from XP, which was taken in the Sonoma Valley.
I'd like to find sources about XP's early reputation since I'm mostly going by memory, when 2000 was thought by many to be the best Windows version between it, Me and XP. When XP's Luna UI was criticized, when XP was seen as more pretty than useful. IIRC it was when Service Pack 2 was released that XP's reputation improved, and when hardware became more powerful that low-end PCs could run it well. I definitely remember the era of netbooks when Vista could run on them but that was a bad idea, but XP could run on them well.
This is one source I found about how XP compares to 2000 and 98SE in music from early 2003: Windows XP One Year
Basis: Commodore 64 and its revivals. Might also represent the C64GS.
Debut: Cycle 595 (Q3 1982)
Hair color: Brown (the dark brown in the C64 palette)
Eye color: Light blue (the medium blue in the C64 palette)
Affiliation: Ready Fleet
Skillsets: Operating Superstar, Bard
Sidney is being re-introdued from Version 2. The first sketch is of her redesigned outfit, which reflects her role as a celebrity chef while also trying to keep a 1980's look to her. The color scheme in the first drawing is an approximation.
The C64 was successful for its games, its music and graphics, but I focused mostly on three details to keep Sidney's characterization focused, and to give her a complementary role on the team: The existence of the Commocoffee 64 (a C64 peripheral that made espresso), the C64's success and capabilities in music, and that the C64 overshadowed both of its intended successors (A Commodore 128 character and Paulette).
She may have been an enemy to the Game Commanders, or to On-Target Mountaineer Court's and their supporters in particular. Yet, later in her run in the original Ready Fleet, she might've also had a stint as a GC after they started becoming popular in her sector. If that's so, she doesn't like to talk about it: The C64 Games System was released as a game console modified from the C64 and was a flop. Whether she also represented the C64GS, or a separate character represents it isn't finalized, but I'm leaning more towards the former since it shows that despite her overall success and legacy, not everything she tried was successful.
At some point, I'll need to write lore details influenced by the Video Game Crash of 1983 and reference Commodore's contributions to it with how they marketed the VIC-20 and C64 since that information will be relevant to the Game Commanders and an article for them 🤔
I reintroduced her now because I planned for her to appear in the carnival in Same Place, Different Universe. SPDU has had a hold-up with the next chapters because I've been working on other stories, and also because some of the characters I planned to have appear in upcoming chapters didn't have finalized designs.
This is also one of the first mentioning of Cool Person's Maison in Version 3. I'll still need to think over if what I established for them still holds up, which might lead to drawing a design for that team's founder, Capucine (based on CP/M).